When they bought a former post office, the Smiths wanted to convert it to a family home without sacrificing its character. Colin Coyle discovers they delivered on both counts

The first time somebody knocked on Trudy Smith’s door and asked to buy stamps was something of a red-letter day for the mother of six. Smith, and her husband Trevor had spent the previous months transforming the former post office in Lusk village in north Co Dublin from a Victorian mail-room-cum-shop into a first-class home. Always conscious of maintaining its postcard-pretty facade, the caller at the door was the ultimate stamp of approval.

“It showed that although its use had changed, it hadn’t lost any of its original character. From outside, it still looks every inch the village post office,” says Trudy.

The Smiths’ converted home is just one of many hundreds of small-town post offices that have ceased trading in the past decade, and the couple’s restoration shows they can be transformed into residences worth writing home about.